Canes Shoot Hoops to Warm Up for Practice in Chicago

CHICAGO - You've seen the Carolina Hurricanes warm up before each game with two-touch soccer, but what about basketball before practice?

With the court set up at United Center for Monday night's match-up between the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls, the Hurricanes took advantage of the empty floor and a spare basketball to shoot some hoops and limber up before skating nearby at the Blackhawks' practice facility.

The highlight of the morning - because, let's be honest, the friendly game of hoops that began as 2-on-2 and grew to 4-on-4 was played at half-speed, at best - was Jaccob Slavin drilling a half-court shot and Martin Necas appropriately reacting.

Slavin, recall, has some

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Joel Edmundson, who is riding a three-game point streak, showed he can drain a more reasonable three-pointer. When you're hot, you're hot.

And then it was off to practice.